Queen Mary 2 at Calshot

Cunard liner Queen Mary 2 passing Calshot, 22nd April 2008.

At about this point she sounded her fog horn, it was an incredible and very deep noise, vibrating the air all around us.

I think the little boat closest to her is the Pilot boat. All ports have local "Pilots" - specialist navigators who know the local waters and whose job is to make sure that vessels entering and leaving the port do so safely. If they're on a vessel leaving port, once their job is finished they climb down into their little boat and go back for the next job.

From this angle it's possible to see that QM2 has a fine raked bow, then broadens quite quickly, her stern is rounded, quite bulbous.

editFrom Ship TechnologyBuilt at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique yard for Cunard, the Queen Mary
2 is ... 345.03m long and
has a beam of 45m at the bridge wings. Its draught is 9.95m and the
height from keel to the funnel is 72m. The Gross Registered Tonnage is
150,000t.

944 of the ship's 1,310 staterooms have private balconies, and a
further 66 have ocean views. The verandah cabins stretch over four and
a half decks. There are also 300 inside cabins.

The vessel is powered by four Wärtsilä diesel engines, supplemented
by two gas turbines. With a total output of 118MW, the power plant
develops 157,000hp.

Propulsion is carried out by four 20MW MerMaid podded propulsion
units, two fixed and two azimuthing through 360°. They incorporate an
electric AC motor that directly drives a fixed-pitch propeller with
highly skewed blades for low noise and vibration.

Queen Mary 2 at Calshot

Cunard liner Queen Mary 2 passing Calshot, 22nd April 2008.

At about this point she sounded her fog horn, it was an incredible and very deep noise, vibrating the air all around us.

I think the little boat closest to her is the Pilot boat. All ports have local "Pilots" - specialist navigators who know the local waters and whose job is to make sure that vessels entering and leaving the port do so safely. If they're on a vessel leaving port, once their job is finished they climb down into their little boat and go back for the next job.

From this angle it's possible to see that QM2 has a fine raked bow, then broadens quite quickly, her stern is rounded, quite bulbous.

editFrom Ship TechnologyBuilt at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique yard for Cunard, the Queen Mary
2 is ... 345.03m long and
has a beam of 45m at the bridge wings. Its draught is 9.95m and the
height from keel to the funnel is 72m. The Gross Registered Tonnage is
150,000t.

944 of the ship's 1,310 staterooms have private balconies, and a
further 66 have ocean views. The verandah cabins stretch over four and
a half decks. There are also 300 inside cabins.

The vessel is powered by four Wärtsilä diesel engines, supplemented
by two gas turbines. With a total output of 118MW, the power plant
develops 157,000hp.

Propulsion is carried out by four 20MW MerMaid podded propulsion
units, two fixed and two azimuthing through 360°. They incorporate an
electric AC motor that directly drives a fixed-pitch propeller with
highly skewed blades for low noise and vibration.

Wow - now that is a ship! I love watching the cruise ships come in and out. I'd assume you do too.

EJWilkins: No Jen, if I'm honest I've never done this before although I've noted the various funnels we might see in port at Southampton. There's just "something" about the Cunard Queens that's important to me, not altogether sure what it is though.

The ship is magnificent, but what really makes this picture are the tiny pilot boats that show how huge she is! I also like the little strip with the water lapping on the sand in the foreground; how can the ship that huge BE in such shallow water and not go aground? Very impressive capture!

EJWilkins: I can't find out how deep the navigable channel is, but it's very close to Calshot Spit, which is why the Queen is so close to the shore. It was an amazing sight!

Thank you for all this information Ellie to illustrate this very powerful image

EJWilkins: I'm glad it was worth the search.
I only thought to look for more because David commented on the draught. I still can't find out how deep the channel is up to Southampton, it must be quite deep because there's an oil terminal at Hythe and a military base at Marchwood.

A fine image Ellie, I hope one day she will visit Liverpool so I can try for a image as good as this.

EJWilkins: There must be a way of finding out if/when she's visiting Liverpool. Would it be in the Cunard cruise programme perhaps? http://www.cunard.com/qe2_cruises.asp
If she does, I hope you get better weather then you're sure to get a better picture than this